joenola89

I'm so sick of people acting like Tulane is some sort of tick on the back of New Orleans. First of all, saying the school is 16% Louisiana students doesn't mean Tulane doesn't recruit or want Louisiana students. I myself am a Tulane student from Baton Rouge (who happens to know quite a few Tulane students from around the state), and the incentives given to students from Louisiana to go to Tulane are incredible. Louisiana students mostly don't take advantage of them because their parents have given them this preconceived notion that it's somehow "un-Louisiana" to attend Tulane.

Additionally, I don't know a single person at this school who doesn't have a scholarship, grant, or loan of some sort. I myself have a scholarship, TOPS, and a Stafford loan that collectively make up about 75% of my tuition.

All my friends who graduated last year from Tulane still live in the city. They've gotten jobs here, and they intend to stay. Sure, many students are from outside of the state, and many students leave after college. But would you rather have a school with far less national and international notoriety that educates 90% Louisiana students that all stay? New Orleans wouldn't have gotten speeches from Barack Obama, Colin Powell, Bill Clinton, or George Bush Sr. without a top 50 school like Tulane.

This school does so much for the state of Louisiana, yet Louisianians are quick to point the finger at it because all its students aren't from up the road. There is no possible way to keep such high standards and simultaneously have mostly Louisiana students. At least the city and region are left with some great minds from around the country and world rather than bunches of moderately intelligent Louisianians who have never left the state. Not to mention Tulane students volunteer locally more than any university in the state and most in the country.

This city and state have always been known as the true melting pot of America, mixing cultures, traditions, and ethnicities more than any other part of the country, but some of you "purist" Louisianians can't handle a few more newbies. Well I personally apologize to you for being a part of a life-long New Orleans institution that finds itself as one of very few helping to reverse the brain drain that goes on in this state.

Tulane is a NEW ORLEANS institution. It always has been. It always will be. All it's missing is some support from the community.

haha are those supposed to be dancers in front of the band? they look ridiculous, and they're not doing anything. my 4-year-old daughter could do that if i allowed her to dress like an over-makeupped bimbo.